Building a Brand New School at Zero Cost

Three Rivers Academy in Surrey needed a major upgrade, but they had no direct funding from local or central government. Mark Saint from Building Schools for Nothing shares their process of planning and delivering a state-of-the-art school that is rejuvenating the community.

Three Rivers Academy in Hersham, Surrey, opened the doors of their new state-of-the-art school building to staff and students in February 2018. The high-quality, spacious accommodation, including the amazing sport, drama, dance and music facilities, was designed to inspire 21st-century learning and allow students to perform at the highest level.

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      string(5714) "� 21 Century Schools  Volume 4:1Project managementwww.teachingtimes.com� Volume 4:1  21 Century SchoolsThe demand for off-site construction continuesto increase in every sector. There are morespecialist contractors in the UK than everbefore. It is therefore essential when you select anoff-site partner to evaluate the most appropriate andeffective solution for each project.School managers should consider the contractor’sexperience in the schools sector, how to achievehigh standards of architecture, the contractor’scommitment to customer service, their consistency ofdelivery on programme and to the agreed cost – andhow the impact of construction on the environmentcan be minimised.10 Tips for Selecting an Off-siteSpecialist1. Assessing an off-site partnerIf a project is a major scheme, does the contractorhave the capacity required, when you need it?Look at their financial stability, R&D resources,health and safety record, technical back-up andproject management expertise.Does the contractor have a zero tolerance policyin place for defects?2. Look at the contractor’s trackrecordThe off-site contractor should have relevantexperience in your sector, and be familiar withall the operational and technical issues and yourspecialist requirements. Talk to other local authoritiesand schools that have used the system and visitcompleted buildings. Always take up references.3. How much of the contractor’sbusiness is from repeat customers?This is a key indicator of a company’s track recordfor delivery on time, its commitment to quality andcustomer service. It should be in excess of 50 per cent– and ideally around 70 per cent.4. What percentage of projectshave been delivered on time and onbudget?Time and cost overruns are still a major concern forschool building projects. Off-site construction shouldsignificantly improve time and cost predictability-and reduce your risk.Ask for statistics that show what percentage ofbuilding projects have been delivered on time andon budget, ideally over the past five years. This will bea good indicator of a contractor’s performance, andallow you to make a comparison between off-sitespecialists – helping you to further reduce risk.As a benchmark, my firm Yorkon increased thenumber of its projects delivered on time and onbudget from 94 per cent to 99 per cent in 2008.5. Independent approvalsLook for independent endorsements and approvals,and ask to see the certificates for verification. Someexamples to consider are:Quality – ISO 9001 certification should be inplace for the whole process, not just selectedelementsFire – LPCB certification for fire resistanceAcousticsInsuranceBBA (British Board of Agrément) accreditationLABC approval6. Assess the contractor’s approachand commitment to sustainabilityThe use of off-site construction can help you achieveyour school’s sustainability objectives. Some areas toconsider in your choice of contractor are:Evidence of year-on-year improvements inwaste and carbon emission reductions in themanufacturing processDoes the contractor have further energy savingtargets in place?Does the off-site specialist hold ISO 14001accreditation? This is the internationally-recognised standard for reducing impact on theenvironmentIs the off-site contractor’s environmental policy inaccordance with the Sustainability Charter issuedby the Major Contractors Group?Does the off-site specialist encourage the use of■■■■■■■■■■■The top ten tipsfor choosing an off-site contractorOff-site construction soundslike a gift from heaven – youget a brand new schoolwith none of the disruptionof building work. But makesure you’re choosing areliable contractor – withthese top ten tips fromDavid Johnson.Bewdlwy school, which was built off-siteProject managementwww.teachingtimes.com� 21 Century Schools  Volume 3:4Project Managementwww.teachingtimes.comrenewable energy and low carbon technologies?Design options should include passive ventilation,rainwater harvesting, ground and air source heatpumps, and biomass heatingDoes the contractor have the resources andexpertise to value engineer the design of yourbuilding to maximise energy efficiency over itslife cycle?Request and compare test results achieved forcompleted buildings to assess the air permeabilityand ventilation performance for each buildingsystem. Do the results meet or exceed BuildingRegulations Part L and Part F?Is the building system future proof? The teachingspaces should be easy to reconfigure and anyinternal walls should not be load-bearing, in orderto meet the school’s changing needs over time.7. What, if any, warranties apply tothe modular system?A comprehensive five-year product warranty to coverthe external fabric of the building and a 20-yearstructural warranty for the load-bearing elementsshould come as standard for all modular buildings.All warranties should be in addition to independentcertification from the BBA.8. Look for best valueEnsure you are comparing cost estimates that arelike for like – and that you are looking for best valuefor your organisation. Look for reduced risk, fastercompletion, lower running costs, lower maintenanceand longevity.■■■9. How will the projectbe managed?D o e s  t h e  c o n t r a c t o r  h a v eadequate site supervision inplace? How flexible is the off-sitespecialist? Can work on site betimed to coincide with schoolholidays? Is the manufacturerwilling to work with your teamor project architect on designdetailing to achieve your aestheticand practical requirements?10. Monitor andevaluateFollowing"
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Learning Spaces

The top ten tips for choosing an off-site contractor

22 Sep 2009

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      string(5779) "26 Century 21 Schools  Summer 2006The Campus  www.century21schools.com27www.century21schools.com   The Campus Summer 2006  Century 21 SchoolsAt the north end, the public enter a double heightatrium, containing a cyber café and giving access tothe library and flexible community rooms.  Between thisand the school accommodation, is a block containingthe sports hall, and dining/ main hall, well positionedfor use by the community out of school hours. Anotherdouble height atrium links these spaces to the rest of theschool accommodation, which again are divided intoexclusive space for either the primary or SEN schools,or shared spaces such as specialist teaching areas, ICTand, significantly, the staff room.One could imagine that getting the three uses tooperate together effectively and smoothly could turninto something of a nightmare, with territorial disputesarising on a regular basis.  However this has been verysuccessfully avoided, by creating a structure that allowsthe involvement of all key stakeholders. As one watchesthe buildings change from mixed use with two schoolsduring the day to varied community use after 3.30pm,there is a seamless transition as new activities start upin the ‘school’ areas.Significantly, the project was led from the LeisureDepartment of the Council, ensuring that the vision ofit being a unified community resource was maintainedthroughout its development and realisation. Onceoccupied, it took a year to establish a Memorandum ofAgreement and a Campus Management Committee,bringing together all the stakeholders includingcommunity representatives, and creating a mechanismto operate the pooled management fund. The buildingis managed by a Campus Manager, again employedby the Leisure Department, and on a day to day basis,problems are resolved by nitty gritty meetings betweenthis Manager and the two headteachers.Herons’ Moor was a brand new primary school thatstarted with only 69 pupils in temporary accommodationon a site opposite the school. When they moved into thenew building a year later, it had risen to 150, and nowevery classroom is in use as the numbers rise towardsthe capacity of 425, a measure of the school’s successand popularity. Julie Fox was appointed as headteacherwhen the design was fairly advanced, but she was ableto influence some of the detailed design.Bay Tree, the SEN school for 67 pupils aged from3 to 19 with severe learning leaning difficulties, wasalready established on another site. This enabled theircharismatic headteacher, Carol Penney, to be heavilyinvolved in the detailed design of the schools. Herclose involvement ensured that many of the complexdesign issues for a school catering for children witha wide range of disabilities have been satisfactorilyaddressed. Her only concern was that a few decisionsslipped through at meetings when she was on holiday,slightly compromising some aspects of the design.Apart from its success as extended schools, the schooldesign scores highly relative to many current designissues. Generally, the internal spaces have excellentdaylighting.  The classrooms mainly face south, and areprotected from excessive solar gain and glare by yellowsun blinds on the ground floor and brise soleils above.Although deep in plan, they have daylighting at the back,also providing through ventilation. The lower classroomsreceive daylighting down shafts from rooflights (see nextpage), but the downside of this arrangement is that thefirst floor classrooms are reduced in size, something thatthe headteachers regret.The building is managed by a CampusManager, again employed by theLeisure DepartmentExternally the building is welcoming and uninstitutional,with a mixture of steel, glass, timber and even naturalstone cladding on the front elevation. The roof is aningenious saw-tooth arrangement with north facingrooflights bringing daylight, with out sunlight, into thedeep plan areas, such as the halls and atria, as well asto the back of the classrooms. The edge of this roof sailsover the front to provide cover to the drop off area forminibuses delivering SEN pupils (although the muchbolder idea of a greater projection to create a porte-cochere offering full protection was apparently droppedto give a cost saving).As a result of the imagination and vision of the twoheadteachers, the children from the two schools mixtogether to a considerable degree. They share the diningroom and mealtimes, and they carry out joint projects,such a week focussing on a particular country. And mostimportantly, they play together. Strong friendships areformed between the children from the two schools, andsome Herons’ Moor children, after they have moved onto secondary school, come back to visit their peers whostill attend the secondary classes at Bay Tree School.The importance of this, in forming positive attitudesto disability for able bodied people, cannot be valuedhighly enough.The Campus is an exemplar of both inclusive educationand an extended school. The design of the buildings wasundoubtedly played an important part in this success, andit is a very useful model for other Education Authoritiesto follow.There are many examples around the country of so-calledextended schools, where different community facilities areco-located on the same site. What is different at the Campusis that a primary school, a nursery, an all-age special schoollibrary and community facilities really are integrated.The CampusWeston-Super-MareThis building study is introduced by co-editor,Andrew BeardArriving at the Campus, in the middle of the piazzaoutside the community entrance, there is"
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22 Sep 2009

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      string(5775) "50 Learning Spaces  Volume 1:3Case Studywww.teachingtimes.com‘Lifestyle’ and ‘aesthetics’ are not necessarily words you seein a school prospectus but Avon Valley College is unusual. Itis an 11-18 Specialist Sports College with an Aesthetics Halland a £400,000 state of the art gym and dance facility whichis open to its eight feeder primary schools and to the wider communitytoo. Best of all, the gym has not cost the school a single penny and it isa model which is attracting a lot of attention from other schools.The gym at Avon Valley Sports College was supplied and equippedby two companies. Competition Line owns the gym and fitness brandLifestyle Fitness while Technogym is the sole supplier of gym equipmentto the Athlete’s Village for the Olympics 2012. The gym opened tothe public in January 2012 and is available for use by fee paying localresidents. They use it out of school hours – they can access the centrefrom 6am until school starts and from when school closes until 9pm. Itis also open 8am-5pm Saturday to Sunday.Carl Gripenstedt explainshow Avon Valley SportsCollege benefited from astate-of-the-art gym anddance studio built withno capital outlay from theschool!Making schoolbudgets gofurther51 Volume 1:3  Learning SpacesCase Studywww.teachingtimes.comFacilitiesAvon Valley Sports College is situated just three milesfrom Stonehenge and is very well equipped. Thereare five computer suites, performing art and musicfacilities, up to the minute science laboratories andtwo administration blocks with a meetings suite.  Theschool also offers vocational training in construction,hairdressing, beauty therapy and agriculture and hasits very own industrial standard garage where youngpeople can learn the skills of car maintenance. Inaddition to the Physical Education suite, there is amulti-use games area, tennis and basketball courts,playing fields and tracks and a courtyard cafe forrefreshments.The Principal, Mark Avoth, said he welcomed theopportunity to get a first class new resource whichwould boost the general health of his students andattract the local community. ‘We wanted to createa campus where parents and carers would feelcomfortable using the facilities.”The gym has new flooring and lighting andTechnogym cardio vascular and resistance stations. Itcontains six treadmills, six cross trainers, a multipowerunit to build lower and upper limb strength, ninebikes, two crossovers, a selection of free weightsand functional cable resistance machines. A chestpress, shoulder press, pectoral machine, verticaltraction, leg press, leg curl, leg extension, seatedrow, abdominal machine, two concept 2 rowers andeleven spin bikes.Not only is it a focus for healthy lifestyles andimproving fitness, Avon Valley also uses the gym toboost the curriculum. The students work towardsGCSE PE, the BTec Sport qualifications and A LevelSport Science and some of the units can now becompleted in the fitness centre. Technogym’s BikeMed product, originally designed for rehabilitationand sports training purposes, comes with its ownsoftware which collects data on the user. Thisfeedback is really useful for young people to helpthem evaluate and improve their performance.  Theycan also export the data for use in other subjects suchas maths and science.The planning processAndy Davidson, Public Sector Manager at Technogym,was heavily involved in the planning and setting upof the new gym at Avon Valley Sports College. Heexplained the different stages. The first step is to takea long and critical look at what space a school has.Not many will be able to afford a brand new buildingbut some schools, especially modern ones, may havebig empty voids above existing spaces. Sometimesit might be a case of installing a mezzanine floor inan atrium.The second stage is to consider the demographicsof the local area. Is anyone else providing gym facilitiesin the immediate vicinity? What is the competition?The working party will need to discuss with seniormanagement, staff and governors the issues ofopening up the school building to the community.“Sometimes we find that schools are already bringingthe community in to use the sports facilities,” saidAndy. “This is an advantage as staffing is likely to bein place already and the school has almost certainlydevoted time to discussing safeguarding issues.”After this comes the contract stage where oftenschools will want to clarify or renegotiate certainelements before the building work can begin.  Inthe case of Avon Valley Sports College, CompetitionLine managed the whole process and provided thearchitects. Currently they are putting their state ofthe art gym into some 20 schools in England. Theyhave their own stand-alone clubs which are highlysuccessful large commercial enterprises but theyare balancing their portfolio with local authority andschool projects.The Avon Valley Sports CollegeprojectThe school was lucky as it had a suitable space whichcould be converted and would not involve extensivebuilding work. There was a dance studio which alsodoubled as a trampoline space. Avon Valley had justhad a new sports hall built and decided to relocatethe trampoline area there as the ceilings were higher.This freed up a space suitable for conversion to aLifestyle gym.A key consideration was energy costs.  The collegehad to consider issues such as power, water and otherservices. “The school was one of the pilot schools forthe Low Carbon Collaborative partnership in Wiltshireso green issues were high on our agenda. Before thegym opened the school did not take bookings during 52 Learning"
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LS1.3_p50-54_Making school budgets go further

26 Sep 2012

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      string(5700) "62Building Schools for the FutureManaging Schools Today September/October 2006Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the biggestsingle government investment in impro vingschool buildings for over 50 years. The programme,aimed at rebuilding or refurbishing every single secondaryschool in England, will invest more than £45bn over a 15-year period.BSF gives us a unique opportunity to encourage educationaltransformation on a national scale. We aren’t interested inbuilding new ‘old schools’: we want local authorities andschools to use this unprecedented investment to act as acatalyst for change. Children today are often taught in the sameway as their grandparents: room layouts, teaching styles andthe ‘chalk and talk’ methods are frequently the same as theywere 100 years ago, without recognition of the potential thatICT offers or new pedagogical styles. A strategic nationalinjection of capital of the kind offeredby BSF, though, could mean a revolution.Local authorities and schools will beable to create modern learningenvironments that are flexible enoughfor children now and in the future.Much has been made of the size ofBSF’s investment, and there are claimsthat improving buildings, their designand the technology contained withinthem won’ t improve results andattainment. But evidence suggestsotherwise. Given brand new schoolsand facilities, pupils feel respectedand in turn respect their peers andtheir environment. By making schoolsa place they want to come to, andmaking education more relevant andtechnologically contemporary, pupilswill be encouraged to learn. BSF can provide these newschools and modern facilities. The policy framework thatenables reforms such as personalised learning, vocationalqualifications and extended schools – and even healthyfood in school canteens – is set by the DfES, as always. Thismust link up with building design to create modern anddecent learning environments for children.It’s not just pupils who will benefit from BSF. Workplacereform means that BSF will improve the workingenvironments for teachers and school staff too. Extendedschools can offer adult learning and community facilities.Long-term facilities management and ICT administrationthat are built into the long-term partnership will reduce theburden of maintenance that currently falls on each school’sstaff. ICT services can even be maintained across a localauthority, allowing better and more cohesive administration.Funding for BSF is directed through the local authorities,rather than at individual schools. Local authorities are invitedto join the BSF programme based on the allocation criteriaof standards and deprivation (taken to be GCSE results andthe uptake of free school meals). We also consider issues suchas the regional market capacity for construction. East London,for example has a high deprivation score and the localUnprecedented sumsof money are being investedin renewing school buildings– and the Partnerships forSchools group aims toensure that it achieves realand lasting changeA designfor lifeDesign sketches for Hartcliffe school in Bristol, set to become one of the first‘fully BSF’ schools when it opens in 200763Building Schools for the FutureSeptember/October 2006 Managing Schools Todayconstruction market will be at capacity in a few years due toconstruction on the 2012 Olympics sites, so many boroughsthere are already engaged with BSF as a priority.Loc al authorities must complete an estate-wideeducational strategy in order to secure approval for BSF. Thestrategy must take into account projected pupil numbersand whether there are enough schools (or too many, too bigor too small), whether they are in the right place, and whetherthey provide the right facilities. At the heart of the strategy isa vision for the future of education in each local authorityarea having full regard to government reforms and policy,such as the current Education and Inspections Bill and theEvery Child Matters agenda.Once the education vision and related investment planshave been approved, local authorities are ready to taketheir project to the market, and issue an OJEU notice tosecure a private sector partner with which to completetheir BSF project. On selecting the private sector partner,which in all likelihood will be a consortium made up ofconstruction companies, architects, ICT companies andother project management partners, a Public-Pr ivatePartnership (PPP) will be formed. The partnership ismajority-owned by the private sector (80 per cent) butalso includes the loc al authority (10 per cen t) andPartnerships for Schools (10 per cent). This PPP is knownas a Lo cal Education Partnership (LEP).LEPs will have exclusivity on contract signature to rebuildor renew all the schools in the local authority, even those inlater phases of BSF, so the motivation for excellence throughlong-term relationships and learning, continuousimprovement and effective team working remains high. TheLEP can even be used to deliver other public sector projectssuch as health and social services facilities or libraries. Thisoffers cost savings to all parties by removing the need forrepeat procurement and bid processes, and means thatestablished and successful teams can continue to worktogether toward common goals and outcomes.To ensure that educational transformation takes placethrough technology, the ICT element of BSF funding isring-fenced. The allocation is £1,450 per pupil, enablingmodern teaching and learning tools to be used across theboard. ‘Virtual learning environments’ could allow pupilsto access lesson"
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Leadership

A Design For Life

1 Jan 2005